Colorado men's basketball: Buffs escape with win at Stanford

Colorado forward Josh Scott (40) drives to the basket between three Stanford defenders during the first half of Wednesday's game in Stanford, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

Fast break

What went right: The Buffs closed the game strong, which is something they haven't done in big games recently. They outscored Stanford 11-5 in the final 3:31.

What went wrong: CU went through a stretch of nearly 11 minutes with only two points in the second half, turning an eight-point lead into a three-point deficit.

Star of the game: Josh Scott. He had his 12th double-double of the season (17 points and 11 reobunds).

What's next: The Buffs will visit Cal on Saturday to wrap up the regular season.

STANFORD, Calif. — — Throughout the season, Tad Boyle has been very quick to deflect any questions about the Colorado men's basketball team's NCAA Tournament hopes or Pac-12 Conference standing.

On Wednesday night, Boyle couldn't downplay the important of his team's 59-56 victory against Stanford at Maples Pavilion.

"This really helped us," Boyle said. "I know there's some doubters out there about Colorado, and it's hard to make a case for yourself if you go on a big slide. I think people realize we won this game on the road against a quality team. Stanford is an NCAA Tournament team."

Colorado (21-9, 10-7 Pac-12) is likely an NCAA Tournament team, too, after knocking off the Cardinal (18-11, 9-8) in a critical road game.

Josh Scott had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Buffs, who also took a step towards securing a top-four spot and first-round bye for the Pac-12 Tournament.

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Coming into the week, most pundits believed CU had already done enough to get into the NCAA Tournament, but the biggest knock on the Buffs was that they had yet to beat a good team on the road. Now they have.

"That just makes everyone be quiet," Xavier Johnson said. "We're a good team. We still have a lot of good talent on this team and if we play defense and we meet our numbers, we'll win games."

The numbers Johnson talked about are holding the opposition below 40 percent shooting and out-rebounding the opposition. CU held Stanford to 36.8 percent and out-rebounded the Cardinal 39-31.

"When we hit them, good things usually happen and they happened tonight," Boyle said.

Not without sweating it out in the final minutes, though.

The Buffs went 3-for-4 at the free throw line in the final 13.1 seconds, and Stanford's Chasson Randle missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

For the second consecutive game, CU went through a dreadful stretch on offense.

In Saturday's loss at Utah, the Buffs led by eight points before Utah went on a 23-2 run over the course of 11 minutes, 54 seconds. The Buffs never recovered and went on to lose by 11.

On Wednesday, CU had just two points in a stretch of 10:41. But, they trailed by just three after that because its defense didn't crack.

"Defense kept us in the game, no question," Boyle said.

CU went on to out-score the Cardinal 11-5 in the final 3:31 to earn one of its biggest wins of the season.

CU led by as many as eight points in the first half and rebuilt the lead to eight points twice early in the second half. The second time came on an Askia Booker layup with 14:12 to play. That gave CU a 46-38 lead.

It was still 46-38 when Stanford star Dwight Powell went to the bench with his fourth foul with 11:54 to go. That seemed to be a golden opportunity for the Buffs, but it was Stanford who responded with an 8-0 run to tie the game.

In fact, after Booker's layup with 14:12 to go, CU went 8:16 without a single point.

A 3-pointer by Randle with 4:50 to go gave the Cardinal the lead, and then Anthony Brown extended the lead to 51-48 with a layup at the 3:57 mark.

Unlike last Saturday at Utah, though, the Buffs recovered, going on a 7-0 run to take a 55-51 lead into the final two minutes and they held on from there.

"It's big-time, especially in our league where there's a bunch of good teams," Scott said. "If you lose a game at this point, because there's such a cluster (in the standings), you're in danger of dropping pretty far. It's a big game for conference standings and for the NCAA (Tournament)."

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